Frederick Barbarossa and the Sleeping Emperor Legend, 1152–1190 | Calm Bedtime History

On 10 June 1190, beneath the hot mountains of Cilicia, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa approached the Saleph River with the army of the Third Crusade. For nearly four decades he had travelled between German courts, Italian cities, papal ceremonies, and battlefields, until one sudden drowning turned a living ruler into an absence around which legends gathered.